Full guide: Getting assessed for ADHD and autism

Most people don't spend months quietly wondering about ADHD or autism for no reason. If that's where you've been, this guide is for the part that comes next: working out what you're actually looking at, and what to do about it.

This is a clear, independent guide to that next step. It's written by an experienced UK clinician with lived experience of neurodivergence, someone who knows how the system works from the inside and how it feels to be the person waiting on the outside. It shows you the real routes to an ADHD or autism assessment, wherever you are in the UK, and explains the trade-offs in plain English so you can reach a decision that's genuinely yours. No clinic waiting to refer you on. No particular answer being sold.

It takes in the NHS, Right to Choose and private routes told straight, how to get referred without getting bounced, what the assessment itself is actually like, and your rights at work whether or not you pursue a diagnosis. And if a diagnosis isn't what you're after, just understanding, it holds that path open too.

A 41 page workbook, including 6 interactive worksheets to work through at your own pace

*This is a fillable PDF. To tick and type into it directly, save it and open it in a PDF app (Files or Books on iPhone, Adobe Acrobat on a computer). Or just print it and use a pen, whatever feels easier.

What's inside

• A note before we start.
• How to use this guide.
• Part 1: I think this might be me. What ADHD and autism actually are, and why they're so easily missed in adults who look like they're coping.
• Part 2: Should I pursue a diagnosis? The honest reasons for and against, and the middle ground most guides skip.
• Part 3: Your routes, plainly. NHS, Right to Choose and private, including what's happening to access right now.
• Part 4: Getting referred without getting bounced. Preparing your evidence, talking to your GP, and the shared-care trap to read before you pay for anything.
• Part 5: What to expect. The ADHD track, the autism track, and both together.
• Part 6: Life around it, diagnosis or not. Work, reasonable adjustments, Access to Work, and support while you wait.
• Closing: wherever you've landed.
• The six interactive worksheets: your day-to-day impact log, making sense of a screening questionnaire, your GP appointment plan, comparing options and providers, shared-care questions to ask first, and where am I now.
• Sources and further reading.
• A note from me.